An Irish archbishop defended the right of the Church to prioritize children who have been baptized for admission to Catholic schools.

Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin told the Irish Independent that the archdiocese had to put the rule in place because there were not enough places in primary schools to accommodate all applicants.

"In Catholic schools, they obviously prioritize people who are Catholic," the archbishop said.

He was responding to a parent's claim that her four-year-old son had been denied a place in several primary schools in south Dublin because he was not baptized.

Archbishop Martin said an issue for Catholic schools was that "the vast majority of them" had a reputation for being good schools and so "everybody wants to go there" leading to too many applicants.

He said the real problem is a lack of places in primary schools, which is also an issue at some Educate Together schools, which is a network of Irish schools that guarantee equality of access to education for children "irrespective of their social, cultural or religious background."

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